The Songwriter Forum - songwriting reviews, tips and chat
Songwriter Forum => The Writing Process => Topic started by: JonDavies on March 12, 2017, 02:58:26 PM
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Not drug wise - do people here generally favour the old paper and pen for lyric writing? Personally I find it best to use the memo app on my phone but I do have a notebook that I sometimes jot things down on. Writing lyrics on my computer has never been successful for me.
Any thoughts?
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I write lyrics on paper and in Notepad on the computer. I'm less likely to lose the ones on the computer. I give them a name and put them in a folder with their name on it. Then all the work for that song goes in that folder. And I do backups fairly regularly. Well, in fits and starts. I think I'll start one running in a minutes here....
I write melodies on staff paper and/or in NoteWorthy (or sometimes in Encore, but NoteWorthy is faster for entering notes). I used to (usually) write melodies and lyrics kind of at the same time. Now I'm kind of leaning a little toward writing lyrics first and melodies after. Or, a lot of the time, I'll start a lyric and then, part way through, I'll start the music. The two components kind of "feed" each other, in those cases.
Until this past year I had never written a song without notating it in the process. "Everybody Wants You, Baby" is the one that broke the mold/mould. I don't think I ever did notate that one. While I still generally notate before trying to do any recording, sometimes I'll record a melody line quickly so I can catch it before it's gone.
Thanks for asking. :)
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I use anything I have to hand while I'm sketching the initial idea, but mostly paper and voice recorder; depends where I am when the ideas come. I then finess using my laptop, where I can move stuff around more easily. Some of my better stuff tends to be written very quickly and on paper while I'm commuting to work. If I sit down with the intention of writing something, nothing much happens.
Mike
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The ideal is something that incoporates text, images and sound files.
I use Evernote - syncs on various devices and accepts all these imputs. I often add text and sound while walking the dog, waiting for aeroplane etc. Though often I also write on staff paper and then take a photo... which isn't ideal as can't later be edited...
Is there a gap in the market here? Something that has sound, text and notation all editable? How much would we pay?!
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I tend to write straight in to my PC
Recording to a basic groove and building from there
I use Microsoft ONE NOTE across all of my devices to note down lyric ideas or even record little melody snippets
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I 've been writing on my guitar for years but increasingly, I find it very easy to write on Poano in Logic. I usually write lyrics on my ipad.
Paul
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Well, I've got 5-6 notepads at my home, 2-3 notepads in my car at work, my computer with 3-4 different places where I jot down lyrical ideas, my iPhone, iPad, and various pieces of paper collected from wherever I seem to be at the moment.
I'm not an organised fella.
So it's a combo of everything I guess. Pen and paper as well as computer.
Music is about the same. I record every idea that pops up on either my computer, iPhone or iPad.
Always write on guitar though.
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I usually start with chord progressions, mostly on (acoustic) guitar, but sometimes on piano/keyboards. I jot down the chord sequences on paper and make a quick recording in my DAW (Samplitude). I can build up 50 or more ideas in that way before taking them any further.
When I am ready to start work on an "album", I then wade through the rough recordings and select about 10 to 12 to develop.
I then start working on the "full" recording of a song: I start by trying to find a drum loop that matches the timing of the song. I usually build up guitar, bass, drums and possibly keyboards to give the basic song structure. I may also record a "vocal" with ad libbed lyrics, just to get the melody.
At this stage (usually the first time I save the song in my DAW), I give the song a name: this can be inspired by the mood of the piece, plus I have notebooks with potential song titles that I peruse. I usually have some (often vague) idea of what the song will be about, but not set in stone.
It's only then that I start on the lyrics. Sometimes I go with my original concept, but often the lyrics take off in their own direction. Most recently, I have been spending a lot of time re-writing until I am really happy that what I have ...
I tend to work on multiple songs in parallel and can sometimes leave a song for several weeks at a time. As soon as I have all 10-12 songs completed (including getting review comments in this forum and using that to improve), I release through Cd Baby!
(Of course, there are many exceptions to the above :) )
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From the Reaper website: "The Windows version also works well with WINE"...
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Old napkins that my whisky glass sat upon. I stuff the crumpled napkins in my shirt and stumble home. The napkins that make it back home become lyric sheets.
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I do all sketch work on evernote, cos you can mix up text and audio nicely together and share across devices.
Helps me with the fact that I only get a few in-between moments to write lyrics.
Evernote is great for the job and the free tier is fine for it.
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Hi!
All this technology... Fascinating!
I use notebooks. An A4 sheet is just big enough
for one song. Strange really.
Later I do a nice document of it on my laptop
but that's way later.
I've always found the mobility of a notebook
unchallenged and also very cheap.
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I tend to use the Notepad on my iPod so its safe. If I write it on a piece of paper I have a feeling someone might find it or Ill lose it myself
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i use notebooks....i even take one to work.i often get my better ideas/lyrics when i should be concentrating on other stuff..ie,work!.
write everything down....EVERYTHING.
i always write on acoustic because i think if it flows on that....it will work in almost any form/style.....then i bang it on logic and build from there
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Pen and paper for me.
Its an age thing. It also means you can cross out your crossing outs.
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I use a mixture. I prefer to use pen and paper as I find I write better late at night just before bed and prefer not to be staring at a bright screen then.
Once I am getting close to finished I then find it easier to use a computer as I can edit the lyric far more easily. I then move some of them onto wordpress so that I have access to them whenever I am in decent signal or wifi.
I am often out walking and get caught short. In these moments I just sing the lyrics over and over and over until they are ingrained in my brain. Then as soon as possible I will scribble them on anything.
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Its funny how so many people are *still* writing with pen and paper in this day and age. That's not a criticism at all. I do the same - I have a special book in which ideas get jotted down in.
When something is complete I 'immortalise' it by putting it on google docs/keep.
I guess that phones are still a PITA to write quickly with and laptops are not the easiest to carry round (and need starting up, plugging in etc).
However, it just occurs to me...last dec. I bought a stylus for my ipad to take notes for an online course. It was one of the more pricey stylus' - ~£35 or so and it was actually a joy to use and take notes with (in conjunction with an app called GoodNotes). I might start using that instead. Can't believe I havent thought of it til now!
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Lyrics, I write on whatever I have handy. Then I transpose into the computer.
Vocal Melodies, I sing into my phone, or mini recorder, or computer. . . again whatever is at hand.
Music I can only write on the computer.
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However, it just occurs to me...last dec. I bought a stylus for my ipad to take notes for an online course. It was one of the more pricey stylus' - ~£35 or so and it was actually a joy to use and take notes with (in conjunction with an app called GoodNotes). I might start using that instead. Can't believe I havent thought of it til now!
I would suggest giving Microsoft ONE NOTE a try
It works across all devices and stays in perfect sync
I also really like the way you can organise "sections" and "pages" within sections - it really is like an electronic notebook / scrap book
I have a section for songwriting (you can even record audio - such as melody ideas) and then sections for every area of my life (work logins, personal logins (using prompts for sensitive passwords) and other info such as insurance documents, holiday information etc.)
You can simply copy and paste anything in to it or "cut out" web pages
Knowing I can access "everything from anywhere" is fantastic and I can't recommend it enough!
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However, it just occurs to me...last dec. I bought a stylus for my ipad to take notes for an online course. It was one of the more pricey stylus' - ~£35 or so and it was actually a joy to use and take notes with (in conjunction with an app called GoodNotes). I might start using that instead. Can't believe I havent thought of it til now!
I would suggest giving Microsoft ONE NOTE a try
Now being a software developer, I've grown to be snobbish about microsoft ;)
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I've been using Microsoft OneNote, too, and love it for the same reasons as Boyd mentioned. It's like multiple filing cabinets with file tabs along the left of the screen. You can have multiple "notebooks" (what I'm calling filing cabinets). I've not yet tried working with sound files in it, but that's coming. I've been singing them into my phone app, but don't like how they start playing on my car stereo when pairing the phone with it. :D
It's really interesting to read how everybody is organizing their material. I'm mainly using OneNote because I originally used it to journal every day. Now I object write in it every day instead of journaling.
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I have Scrivener, which sounds similar to OneNote, although I don't know about the synching part, since I mostly don't synch anything except my Contacts in Google. Anyway, I never thought of using Scrivener for writing music.